Friday, July 27, 2012

Syria (Asad, Israel, Iran, Apello)

Syria o, Syria, how shit is hitting the fan in your country. If you don't know why there is fighting, here is why: a rebel group who says they are after the interest of the people are rising up, although many speculate that this rebel group is doing this just for the own benefits (not the peoples). First, there were some skirmishes in Damascus, which have since been crushed by Asad. Since then, Apello, Syria's most populous city, has come under siege. The rebels have taken a great portion of the city, and it looks as though the rebels the rebels will take it; however, there have been many speculations today that the Syrian government is looking to make an all out attack on the city. With jets flying over head, and the pro-government paper al-Watan reporting that the mother of all battles is about to be upon Apello.

Now for the good stuff. Russia and China, Syria's allies, vetoed a U.N. Security Council initiative to intervene in the conflict(with sanctions), their reason, that under the U.N. code the sanctions were proposed under there could potentially be military involvement from outside countries. This makes perfect sense. The strange part is that both the United States and Britain got very upset by this, even though if sanctions were passed it would give the rebels more steam. Maybe the U.S supports the rebels? I thought this was impossible at first. Even Israel, who has technically been at war with Syria, does not want the Rebel's to take control, and we Americans love Israel. Even stranger, Iran doesn't want the rebels to gain control. Israel is concerned about the Syrian chemical weapon stockpile, and Iran about loosing one of their only Shia allies. Yet, the U.S. was very vocal about the sanctions, probably in hope it would calm the rebels, which doesn't really seem like a possibility. It's a confusing situation, where everyone has something to loose and gain, and no one has really any idea of what to do. A quote from the Congressional Research Center "A menu of imperfect choices confronts U.S. policymakers". It's going to be interesting to see how this turns out, and it was nice to see the U.S. seem to make an independent, non-economic, call for peace.